Tarsus IV
by HadesGhostGirl
Summary: Claire (later known as Jim) is shipped off to the Earth Colony on Tarsus IV after driving her step-father's car off a cliff. Whilst she's there (before, during and after the famine) she realises that she isn't who she thinks she is. (Prequel to Mother Daugh-Son Bonding and Brother). (Trans!Jim pre-transition)
1. Chapter 1

Claire sat glaring out of the window of the transport. After driving Frank's car off a cliff she'd been shipped off. They were now about 10 minutes from breaking atmosphere on Tarsus IV and Claire did not want to be here.

She would be living with her aunt and uncle. Her aunt and uncle who she hadn't seen since her birthday. Nobody was ever happy on her birthday.

Least of all her.

She fidgeted with her bra. The damn things were never comfortable.

"We are now entering the outer atmosphere of Tarsus IV," said a woman's voice from some concealed speakers. "Could everyone could take their seats, put their trays up and fasten their safety belts please?"

The crowd of people, most of whom were already sat, grunted and fiddled with their belts and trays. Claire pulled the belt over herself and squirmed at the feeling of it separating her (admittedly not very developed, but there enough to be annoying) boobs. "As we hit the atmosphere there will be some turbulence, don't panic this is perfectly normal," The voice was far too perky and Claire glared out the window harder. She could see the planet looming ahead it was a weird mix of orange, green and blue with a lot more orange than anything else. "Thank you for using United Space for your journey today. We hope to have your service again."

The heat of atmospheric entry was causing a flame to flare all around the transport and Claire briefly stopped glaring to stare in wonder at it. Then she remembered herself and glared extra hard.

As promised, the entry was turbulent but once they passed the upper atmosphere things evened out a little. Claire was watching the land far below, despite her frustration and anger with being sent out here she really loved the view from that window. When it had still been Earth and they had passed through Iowa, briefly stopping in California before leaving Earth's atmosphere she had loved seeing that town, that _state,_ vanish beneath her. Once they had left the planet she loved the view of the stars outside the window. When they hit warp speed and those stars became white blurs vanishing past her window she'd almost been awed. But then Tarsus IV had come into view and her mood had started to fall, and yet she still loved the view.

They landed in a small area just outside of a small town, or that's what Claire thought it was. It turns out this small town was the main port town of the entire planet. The largest settlement of Tarsus IV and it wasn't much bigger than Riverside.

The docks were split into arrivals and departures. There was a gate into each area that allowed for families to drop off and collect their loved ones. Claire watched the gate as she exited the transport. Her aunt and uncle were there somewhere.

"Claire?" A voice called. "Claire Kirk?"

Claire turned towards the voice and her glare settled on her uncle. "My you've grown Claire," he said, as he came up to her.

"Yeah Uncle Bill it's been like 5 years since you saw me," Claire said, rolling her eyes. "Kids don't stop growing at 7."

"Well I didn't think you'd double in size," Bill said, holding his hand a lot lower than Claire can actually remember being.

"I wasn't that short."

"You were kiddo," Her aunt said as she came up behind her husband. "Now how about we get your stuff and go settle you into your room?"


	2. Chapter 2

Bill and Sandra started to notice Claire didn't like noticeably girly things fairly soon after she had arrived. At first they thought she was just a Tomboy but then they noticed more subtle things. The way she avoided looking at her reflection sometimes. The way her shoulders hunched inwards whenever someone (Deliberately or inadvertently) drew attention to her chest. The way she sometimes flinched when female pronouns were used. The way she didn't bat an eyelid when someone mistakenly called her 'he'.

"Hey Aunt Sandra," Claire said. "Uncle Bill." She stumbled across the kitchen and grabbed a bowl.

"Morning Claire," Sandra said.

"Morning Sweetheart," Bill said.

They both pretended not to notice the slight flinch at her name and the endearment.


	3. Chapter 3

When the famine hit nobody actually believed there was a problem.

Which, of course, made the problem worse.

People were wasting food. There was no rationing. Nobody really thought that they would have no food left. That went out the window pretty rapidly once _all_ of the crops were dead. The colony wasn't expected to have a supply ship come but for another 6 months. That was when everyone started to panic. That was when Kodos started making hard decisions.

Kodos first tried to split what little food there was between all of the colonists. It wasn't working. It would never work.

The lack of food had started to cause riots.

Claire had run the moment she saw the rioters breaking down the door. She hurdled the fence at the edge of the property just as her Aunt Sandra screamed. She was crying. She knew what had happened. She hadn't gotten out of the house before they had broken the door down. Uncle Bill was in the kitchen. Oh god the blood. He had screamed. "CLAIRE! Run!" Of course, she already had been. She cried out. She stopped running. She could see the blood when she closed her eyes. She'd cleaned those worktops just that morning. Blood.

She collapsed.

"Oh god," She gasped. "Oh god. I miss Frank. Sam!" She curled her knees up to her chest and held on, crying. She never thought she would miss Frank.


	4. Chapter 4

Claire was crouched, hiding behind a low wall. There was a family inside the house the other side of the wall. A family that had food. Claire's stomach growled. If she could get them out of the house she could get that food.

"Kirk," Kevin said from next to her. "I've got an idea." Kevin was one of the kids she had taken under her wing. She swore she'd protect them. Most of them had been on the wrong side of Kodos's divide and had only escaped because their parents had hidden them. Both of Kevin's parents were dead.

"It better not be stupid, Riley," She said, glaring at him.

"It might be," Kevin vaulted the wall and ran towards the window. "Hey!" He yelled and started to make an absolute nuisance of himself. Claire rolled her eyes but didn't waste time as the father, followed by the mother, left the house. She could see two kids, one about 8 - Kevin's age - and one a few years younger, stick their heads round the front door. She ran, in as much of a crouch as she could manage, around the back of the house and through the back door. Rapidly, she filled the bag over her shoulder with as much of the families food as she could take - without leaving them to starve.

Kevin appeared over her shoulder. "Hey, Kirk," he said. "I lead them down the street and slipped off a long time before they caught me."

"Good, help me grab some stuff we could use," She said, slinging the bag over her shoulder and starting to rummage through the family's cupboards. She grabbed a frying pan, a can opener and a pair of blunt scissors.

"Can do boss," Kevin said, as he began rummaging through draws. He pulled out a few sharp knives, a couple spoons and a bottle opener.

"What do you think we could do with that?" She said, pointing at the bottle opener.

"Open bottles," Kevin stated.

"We don't have any bottles," Claire pointed out.

"Right," Kevin agreed, throwing the bottle opener back into the draw. "Medicine cabinet."

"We're running low on bandages," Claire said, pulling at the bandages wrapped around her chest.

"I know," Kevin said as he bolted off to find the medicine cabinet and steal all of their bandages and painkillers. Kevin and Claire both knew that what Claire was doing was dangerous and there were better options. They also both knew that they didn't have access to those better options.

Claire had ripped her bra the other day and it was completely unwearable now, she knew she'd be more comfortable, more able to move, if her boobs were bound in some way but she couldn't get a hold of another bra (and she didn't want to) and the colony was far to small to have a supply of binders (and any there were were likely to be in use and she didn't want to deprive anyone of that luxury).

When Kevin came back, he dumped the bandages, painkillers and whatever else he thought would be useful into the sack he had. "That boy better not show his face here again!" Came an angry yell from out the front.

"Go go go," Claire said, pushing Kevin out of the house.

"I'm going."


End file.
